Something old ,something new

I have called this blog "something old, something new" because the new DfE POS certainly has elements of the previous approach to primary language learning and also has laid down a requirement that there is joined up thinking between KS2 and KS3
There are few new tools but there are new challenges 
There is little new direct advice but there are documents and measures we can use to see how the development of this new seven year language learning continuum develops in individual schools.Below is one possible solution to getting the message out there loud and clear and supporting/ being able then to offer strategic support to local colleagues who need to grapple the new challenges. 

A few months ago one of our local schools shared with me a grid of subject self evaluation descriptors for foreign languages.
The grids were taken from the descriptors that some of us were already familiar with from the subject specific grade criteria on the OfSted website.
What I found interesting was that the school wanted to consider their own progress in primary language learning against this grid . It was probably the first time that the school had been made aware of self evaluation descriptors for primary language learning and the subject coordinator wanted to use these to monitor her own strategic progress and how well the school was addressing the requirements of language learning in the school.
At first I was concerned - concerned for those who haven't started and concerned for those who may find some of the descriptors challenging .
So I contacted Elaine Taylor, HMI,National Lead for Modern Languages,  and asked her for her advice. Should I share these descriptors with my local network schools? Below is her initial response.

This document is nothing new. It is the subject specific grade criteria that have been around for years, but they have been presented differently - in a grid. They are free on the Ofsted website.

The statements are aspirational, but they have the health-warning that they be used as ‘appropriate to the age of the pupils concerned’. They are emphatically NOT to be used in inspections, so the interpretation of ‘appropriate’ is up to the school. The accompanying notes state: ‘It is important to note that this guidance is intended only to inform the judgements made by specialist inspectors carrying out subject survey visits. It is not for use on section 5 whole-school inspections.’ There are not likely to be any subject inspections in foundation subjects for the foreseeable future.

After reading her advice I decided that schools did need to be aware or reminded of these descriptors and that the primary colleagues I work with would want to have or be aware of strategic guidance.
What I didn't want to do was over egg or frighten schools as they grappled with first steps or next steps in primary language learning.

Below is a check list questionnaire I generated from some of the descriptors to help schools to consider whereabouts they would put themselves using OfSted criteria in the development of primary language learning.I have found that this has become a useful document to develop dialogue with SLT and coordinators and to support and guide colleagues to determine next steps.It works best where contact already exists and a good working relationship  has been established. 
I always share with them Elaine's comment above and make it clear that these are descriptors to be used as guidelines taken from a much larger document and should not currently be used in an inspection.It is also really important that as Elaine points out the descriptors are considered in an age appropriate context , which in my opinion means also a stage appropriate context too.

SLT are not daunted or frightened if you ask them to identify where they are currently and what their own next three or four steps from the questionnaire. 
They welcome the fact that they have something on which to build their own individual school's strategic language  learning development and feel that the descriptors allow for profitable exchanges,conversations and next steps  between SLT and subject coordinators and then also between subject coordinators and staff.What is very important is that the school considers the points as appropriate to the school itself.We can offer solutions ,support,networking and we share the good practice we find so the document becomes a two way conversation and not purely a focus on what still needs to be done.In every school there are SLT,teachers, teaching assistants and governors- non specialist and specialist language teachers alike- who bring language knowledge, great ideas and good pedagogical approaches to language learning.In every school there are instances where guidance and support from in house,within the network or beyond is required.  

Here are the main points and statements I selected.Certain points needed adaptation for example "inter" cultural understanding as the new DfE POS talks about culture rather than inter-cultural understanding.

Teachers communicate the value of modern languages to pupils very effectively.

Planning is informed by a good level of subject expertise.

Teachers routinely use the target language for classroom communication and generally insist on pupils responding in the language.

Pupils willingly participate in activities that require them to use the language to communicate orally and in writing as a result of good teaching.

Text is used well to improve pupils’ pronunciation and as a ‘cue’ for speaking and writing. Imaginative use is made of a breadth of listening materials to develop pupils’ understanding of the spoken word.

Reading is used to develop (inter)cultural understanding and pupils read for pleasure.

Curriculum planning is responsive to pupils’ prior learning, including for pupils transferring from primary to secondary schools.

The curriculum is broad, balanced and well informed by current initiatives in modern languages .

Curriculum planning ensures pupils have opportunities to develop all four skills equally. All pupils are provided with first-hand experience of the culture of the country where the language is spoken through visits or visitors or through the use of ICT.

Pupils’ learning is enhanced through productive links with other subjects.

Leadership is well-informed by current developments in the subject.

Subject leaders encourage other stakeholders to make a positive contribution to the promotion of language learning.

The subject makes a good contribution to whole-school priorities, including literacy and numeracy policies.

The descriptors in yellow create purposeful discussion from the outset:

• Are SLT aware of the new DfE POS and the demands of the new curriculum?
• How can we make all staff  aware of the importance of learning an language. How can we support staff to find ways to celebrate what their children are learning in a language even if they themselves are the not the deliverer of the language teaching and learning?  
• How can all staff promote language learning and be aware of the activities and progress the children make?(This can be in the way they watch, listen or ask the children to share an activity they have practised with a language teacher or because they themselves are teaching the language learning).
• How an the learning environment in the classrooms promote languages? Perhaps this will be appropriate for the age ,stage and teacher's approach through display, reading corner access to text,use of songs and games as five minute follow up activities, revisiting spoken language with sound files, class assembly focuses etc.This is important in my opinion  particularly if the school opts for a visiting teacher to deliver primary languages.
• Are the teachers of language learning in  school aware that children need to make equal progress in speaking and writing in the new DfE POS.Do the teachers feel confident to explain and teach grammar in an age and stage appropriate manner.What will progress look like in language learning and how will children , teachers and SLT be made aware of progress?
• What does substantial progress should look like in pupils' learning?
• Both primary and high schools need to take stock.What has happened before?What languages might they meet in KS3 and KS4 ?Are schools aware at KS2 and KS3 that in primary language learning is asked to lay foundations of language learning and at KS3 colleagues should build upon the foundations even if there is a change to another language?
• What skill development is taking place ? Do schools have guidance to support the development of skills in a language learner and where can support be accessed and utilised? 

This is dialogue document I am finding generates purposeful discussion and allows primary schools ownership of next steps.Used properly and strategically it can allow the school to move forward with their implementation of language learning.It's a document which  needs to be shared with staff and with visiting teachers and language assistants to enable a clear  path in language teaching and learning to develop.
It's about using what exists to support schools to find ways forward and in lots of cases to celebrate  what they are already striving to achieve.

So how do we work together to address or enhance descriptors above? Take a look here

Full circle progress together

I don't think you become a teacher without wanting to share and watch and support people of all ages develop. Teaching languages is in my opinion a joy!

Watching colleagues and schools rise to the challenge of primary foreign languages,succeed and breed success is probably one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. 

I think there are quite a few colleagues out there who would agree with these sentiments. 

Getting ready for our conference next week and reflecting on what we are achieving as a diverse group of schools and individuals , Kate's email popped in to my account and this came to mind....full circle  support and making progress together. 

Meet Kate ! 

I met Kate as she changed career. She had a degree in languages and the ability to speak fluent French and Spanish. Kate decided to become a primary school teacher and her background in English and Drama helped too in making this decision.
At the time I was the languages consultant for Warrington LA , but our paths had crossed before as she had attended the same High School where  had taught French and German, from where I took groups of A Level language students out to the local cluster schools to develop drama and primary language workshops .Like myself Kate had always loved Drama and made the natural links between languages and performance.She wanted to train as a primary teacher with a languages specialism  - but wanted to be sure first .
So for one year in 2006 -7 Kate worked for the Language Assistant Programme in 5 different primary schools in Warrington with myself .To this day I remember her skeleton rap with Year 5 in French and we still use Kate's culture and counting power point! A year later she trained to be a primary school teacher.

Since then our paths have crossed at local support group meetings and at our local conferences. Kate found a job in a school where language had a good profile and an excellent MFL Coordinator Mel Cowap(also with a primary languages specialism PGCE as her training). 

Now meet Mel! 

Mel  encourages staff to participate,has set up a meaningful programme of study filled with wonderful ideas and resources and goes out of her way to find  ways of linking language learning across the curriculum.Just before Kate joined the school I accompanied  a group of Primary Heads to Dijon on a Headteacher to Headteacher link ,set up by the British Council .The school established a link with a primary school and have really pursued this link- important if you want to keep it alive.In the first year they did a playground to playground comparison for example. 
A year ago I sat down with Mel to discuss the visit from French primary children from Dijon to the Warrington Primary school. She had set up a treasure hunt round school for all the Year 5 and 6 French and English children and was in the process of going through letters of application from the Year 6 children to be guides and buddies for the day for the group of visiting Dijon children.  Mel has been on maternity leave this year and Kate has overseen the languages. I love the joined up thinking and the strategic approach to developing languages.Indeed this is a school where all those years ago (between 1998 and 2002) I  took sixth formers to develop hands on drama and languages workshops in French and German!

So now we have come full circle. Kate has a little boy and works part time. She also works with ourselves once again as well ,one afternoon a week. Mel is back at work and will be at our conference with Kate next week! Their passion is most definitely primary languages but they are first and foremost primary classroom practitioners at Broomfields CP School.  



At the weekend I sent out an email to ask my associate colleagues to consider areas of progression in primary language learning . You can read about this here.
Kate's response was about her own Year 4 class  at Broomfields CP that she works with all year round as a primary class teacher job share. She delivers their French language learning too. When I read what she wrote I decided that this was a message for my blog. The children are making progress with the class teacher that they trust.The progress is in place and Mel( the coordinator at the school) has put in to place a system of learning that guides this. Kate has implemented and encouraged the progress this year and the children in her own class are making very good progress.Remember that the progress they make is based around singing , games, drama, story, creative work across all four skills and as e can read the children are making simple progress in their understanding of grammar and their knowledge of France via their link with Dijon!

This is what she says: 

In terms of progress my year 4 class has increased their ability to listen for specific sounds and words, write simple words and phrases on whiteboards, in air writing, in greetings cards and a through writing a letter to a pen friend. Their speaking confidence has grown in terms of transactional language (asking and answering questions) which we use as much as possible throughout the course of the lessons and in terms of picking up new words and phrases.  When meeting new vocabulary and matching the words with their definitions,the children will automatically look for cognates and near cognates and will readily use these technical terms to describe their strategy. 

They will then look out for words already known or which can be worked out, paying attention to any faux amis (false friends) which, as language detectives, they need to be suspicious of! Then, lastly they will use process of elimination. 

At this stage, the children are aware of grammatical rules such as there being more than one word for 'the' in French and that the adjective usually comes after the noun.  

In Year 4 we have also increased our cultural understanding by looking at the city of Dijon, where we have a link primary school and how it compares and contrasts with our own home town. The children have used bilingual dictionaries to look up nouns and adjectives. 

The next steps for these learners will be to revisit and review some key phrases and vocabulary at the start of Year 5 then to move on to new content areas of language.  They are going to listen to more complex words and phrases and have the opportunity to read longer phrases and texts in French.  They will also work on speaking more at length, expressing opinions and will practise short presentations to perform in front of the class. To add to their knowledge of grammar, the children will meet regular (and some irregular) verbs.

And what does this progress look like in practise in the classroom as teaching and learning?

Here is a report from our Network News from February 2014. The school had a primary BEd ITT with primary languages as her focus.She spoke some Italian too and the teacher and the student  linked her knowledge of Italian with French and also German and spent a day at the end of the half term celebrating the languages of the Winter  Olympic Games. Once again it's about team work, sharing and networking. 

Here is the brief report ..

"Co-ordinated by class teacher and MFL teacher Kate Percival and BEd student Jenny Pimlott, the three Year 4 classes at Broomfields took part in a rotation of activities, experiencing German, Italian and French!  

On the first day of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Year 4 were shown videos of what kinds of sports to expect to see and learnt their names in German whilst adding actions, going on to play Simon Says (Max sagt...!) and a splat game against an opponent. They then looked at the kind of useful and non-useful clothing you would take with you to the games and played Quiz Quiz swap with the words in Italian and the pictures of the items.  The children also solved a mystery in French about which sport Marie wished to see in Sochi and each child wrote a sentence in French on their own Olympic gold medal to take home as a souvenir of their day.  They finished by enjoying singing and dancing to J'aime skiier...'.' skiing song! 

It's a long time since 1998 when a foreign languages teacher with her group of sixth formers went into local cluster primary schools for the first time.

It's been for a long time that I have had the honour of working with the Head, Mel and Kate from the school.

It's a long time since Kate first asked could she join the language assistants ' team.

Strikes me it's all about support ,networking and sharing!

What has continued all the time is the support:

• support I received from line managers to go out and trial primary languages and drama,
• support the primary heads gave me with the drama project,
• support I received when I became a languages consultant
• support that Kate received as she went in to local primary schools to be a language assistants 
• support of Mel for Kate and Kate for Mel 
• support for a training teacher, to see and feel what primary languages can really look like 
• support of a network and the individual links schools and teachers can make with each other 

Ready,steady,go! Setting off together with Primary Language Learning

Making first steps to progress together in primary languages. A report from the chalk face 

It's a case of Ready! Steady !Go!

This morning I have had the great pleasure of helping a school to set off on their Spanish learning journey.

Here is the picture so far .....

The school has a Year 3 teacher who has a degree in Spanish and has decided to embark on Spanish for this reason plus the fact that the school feeds to a local High school which offers Spanish.

The audit of staff skills showed that there were that other staff had a limited knowledge of Spanish and would need support to deliver a programme of study With support the school is about to set off on an exciting language learning journey where class teachers will deliver the language learning and draw support from each other.

We have begun to put some simple tools in place today to help school to set off on this journey!

Step One: 

Getting to understand the new PoS from the DfE for Primary Languages and unpicking the Purpose of Study section to create a school vision.(This has already happened and the POS was used as a discussion tool today to forward plan)

Step Two: 

A clear and simple guide by the subject coordinator during staff CPD time to set the staff and children off on their learning journey together (after half term) 

Step Three: 

A shared learning experience

School will hold a celebration of the World Cup using the games and activities from the JLN World Cup Football Seasonal Specials with a focus on the World Cup PE games  downloadable folders with lessons with support sound files in Spanish for the staff , using limited language in a familiar curriculum area- Sport. What a gift this year too as the World Cup focus moves to South America!

Step Four: 

Follow up discussions

How did the children react to PE in Spanish?

How quickly did the children remember the language?

How easily could the children lead the PE games ?

How did the sound files support the staff?

These discussions will pave the way to a simple understanding of how teachers can develop- their language lessons in the early stages and how they can be learners alongside the children, facilitating learning too.

Step Five

Planning for a European Day of Languages Celebration in September.

We felt one way of stepping off and setting out what be to look at languages around us  as way to support the children , mainly mono-lingual, to appreciate languages around them. The coordinator will ask the staff to investigate some of the Commonwealth  languages materials (Welsh, Manx, Gaelic and the Scots reading of Peter Rabbit) plus investigate the target language country of their chosen language- Spain

Step Six

Establishing tools to help the school progress together.

I love these! The ideas developed from the discussions between the subject coordinator and myself and are so simple, so primary and so effective!

Suitcases to pack and unpack

This idea came from our conversation about my blog A journey worth the taking……………… (otherwise known as Miss Hilton’s suitcase. 

Creating real suitcases per year group or stored as a virtual class memento suitcase on the school VLE, that can go up with the children to the next year group and can be unpacked by the next  teacher. 

So for instance KS1 children learning songs and rhymes in the target language can share threes with the Y3 teacher at the start of the year.

Year 3 moving into Year 4 can unpack their Year 3 songs, games and memories with their new Year 4 teacher. 

Effective transition and a time to reflect and learn with or from the children as they move into a new year group! 

Step Seven

Building knowledge of grammar together. 

The new POS asks us to teach all four skills of listening,speaking,reading and writing and to develop the children's understanding of basic grammar. 

We discussed how this could be seen as a  big challenge but how really the grammar that young learners  meet in the target language is that of SPAG (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions). 

The first focus we identified are NOUNS! 

Simple – let’s have treasure boxes for each KS2 class , linked to my grammar blog about noun collectors.

Each lesson or when appropriate,a child that has worked well, joined in well, shared etc can be asked to draw a specific noun they have met in the lesson as picture treasure record and place it in one of two class treasure boxes.The boxes are for either our masculine or feminine nouns (and of course neuter if you are working in German). In return for the picture the child receives in  a card paper gold coin – for work well done!
It’s important right from the start that the staff and the children understand that masculine and feminine don’t refer to male or female and that these are “tags” to help us to use the nouns in messages in the target language in different ways( el/la in Spanish mean "the" which are referred to as definite articles by you and me!). 
Guess what half way through the year in the treasure boxes the  coordinator will add “un “ and “una”   stickers on the inside lids of the boxes.The challenge from the coordinator will be to ask the teacher and the children in the class to spot when and how these words are used …. Hence they will explore indefinite articles. Later she can change or add two new boxes for plural masculine nouns and plural feminine  nouns. everyone moves forward together and the coordinator can support.The year one , stage one grammar target will be to work with the children on their knowledge of target language nouns.

Step Seven

Ah I hear you ask …. But what about the teachers and the children when they get stuck in their language explorations! Well the coordinator is going to put up a Spanish letterbox outside her classroom – indeed she showed me the spot- and  the teachers and children can post her questions to ask, thoughts the class have had to check , good work done, creative ideas, facts they find out! Simple, effective and this helps to be able to access the school coordinator as a point of reference!

Step Eight

QR Codes!

The school wants to celebrate the fact that their children are developing the WOW factor (liberation from insularity!).This is a mainly mono-lingual school so the QRs help the mums, dads, carers and wider community get the WOW factor too – by being able to hear their children speak on displays that are 2D but become talking walls! 

Simple greetings to start with on a picture linked to Spain and Spanish culture in classrooms and in the foyer.

Everyone has to start at the beginning and build on solid foundations.

I look forward to going back to school to help them build some more !